video setup for self filming ….Long and boring

This is how I setup for self filming in real time with almost no editing. Filmed with go pro 4 silver. The whole thing of posting to vimeo is a new animal to me. For anyone considering filming this is about as real as it gets. Also remember I'm doing this setup in the DARK during deer season.https://vimeo.com/138266531

 

Hey great setup drslyr

 

Lol. Thanks for taking the effort and sharing.

 

Thanks for the video. I was interested in that arm, but it sounds like it's quite noisy to set up, and looks super bulky.. Any comments to that?

 

Well it was hot and I wasn't trying to be quiet setting it up.It was basically a demonstration video on how I go thru my exact setup for self filming minus the getting up and down off the stand to change the go pro camera angle. I would never make that much noise in a real hunting situation. Also I removed the base from the arm just to make it a little more compact.

I have since reattached the base to the arm to try to eliminate 1 step. I have been using a muddy tree arm however I wanted to try something with more reach. The lightning tree arm only weighs about 1.5lbs more but has a 57" reach where the muddy is quite short and i was missing opportunities to film off the left side of the tree being a right handed shooter. I have bow hunted 41yrs. and have only been filming for 3yrs.so its been a learning process for me too. The video I made here was the first time I have ever setup the lightning arm so I was learning as well as showing you guys my steps for self film setup. From what I can tell the Lightning arm is gonna be the cats pajama's

 

I would take a look at the Lightning Camera Arms Assassin model. It's lighter and more compact, not noisy at all, but still has over 50" reach. I just picked one up a few weeks ago and it's awesome. I plan to write up a full review on it when I get some time.

 

If I was to get one I would for sure be removing the base from the arm as I would not want that much bulk outside the pack..

 

Yea I agree it would be nice if the base was easier/quieter to take on and off. I have played around with taking it off but it does seem noisy, I don't think it was designed to be taken off/on every time. But I still don't mind leaving it on, especially after having own a muddy arm. The base on the muddy arm I had was twice as big and heavy. On the assassin arm I have, I think the overall length with the base attached is pretty close to the total length of just the muddy arm I had. But with one of the other Lightning Camera arm models, I bet they would be really long with the base attached and difficult to pack.

 

I made a suggestion to the manufacturer to make the base bolt only threaded the last 1" that way you don't have to slide the full length threaded bolt all the way through hopefully eliminating some of the noise

 

The lightning camera arm is the best arm on the market. Way lighter and less bulky then a muddy. The way this guy sets it up takes too long and he has it completely taken apart. I get mine set up in less than 2 minutes. Extremely quiet.

 

So it sounds like you carry yours around completely together? That to me looks like it is super bulky.

 

I have a tensing 2200 back pack. The full arm with the head on it strapped on the bottom isn't bulky at all. It is barely wider than my hunting pack and I never have problems with it banging on trees when getting into the stand. I just carry my plate that goes on the tree with the ratchet in my pack. It only takes me about 5 minutes to get my camera arm attached, and my camera set up.

 

Can you guys post any pics of your arm strapped to your packs?

 

This is the only one I have on my phone right now, I can take some better ones tomorrow.

 

Iv'e gone back to removing the arm from the base. It just packs easier.

 

Bullseye Is your cam attached to the arm in that pic. and if so do you walk thru the woods with the cam on the arm like that?

 

No, my camera is there on the ground in front of my bag. I carry it inside the small pack that's beside it that attaches to the front of my pack. I do leave the base, fluid head and lanc controller attached to my arm though. It all fits perfectly in my pack, nothing sticks out above or to the side of my pack. The biggest difference is that I'm using the Assassin arm, so the overall length isn't as long as the Solo arm you have.

I also bought extra tree mounts from Lightning Camera arms so I can just leave them on the tree. So the only thing I have to do when I get up is slide my arm/base into the mount, set my camera on my head, plug in my lanc and Mic, and I'm ready to go. Only takes me a minute to two. It's SO much better than the setup I used last season that was a pain to haul and took me forever to setup. After all the frustrations I went through, I spent a lot of time in the offseason researching what would be the easiest setup that would still produce solid footage and this is what I landed on. Ended up spending more than I planned on, but so far I've been really happy with it.

 

Thanks to all who put my video over 1000 views. Hope everyone liked it. I'm working on editing a 2 cam shoot using the lightning tree arm with my HFG20 and my friend was videoing with a dslr free hand. We were 50 yds. apart and we both filmed me shooting a spike buck with the bow. This was my first solo filmed kill on video after three seasons of trying. Now the nightmare of splicing the video footage from both cams together. I'll post it here on the forum when its complete. Might be a while though.